SOUTH African coal exports from Richards Bay increased 10.7% in 2025 which represents the highest volume in four years.
Richards Bay Coal Terminal, an industry-owned and operated export handling facility, said in its annual review on Tuesday exports totalled 57.66 million tons. This compares to exports of 52.08Mt in 2024 and 47.21Mt in 2023 which was the lowest in about 40 years.
RBCT CEO Alan Waller forecast total exports of 55Mt for calendar 2025, but he upgraded this in July as an improvement in the performance of Transnet Freight Rail was anticipated in the second half of the year.
Data provided by RBCT showed the fourth quarter of 2025 was the best for the terminal with exports reaching a tempo or annualised figure of 67Mt. This bodes well for this year. At that annualised level, coal exports would be the best since 2020 when just over 70Mt were exported from South Africa.
Asia was the dominant destination commanding just under 80% of all exports, equal to some 46Mt. Europe accounted for 4.1% or 7.2Mt tons of total exports followed by Africa (6.9%) and the Middle East (6.1%).
Last year was a difficult market for export coal. The export price per the API4 benchmark (South African exports) was forecast by Exxaro Resources in December to average $89 per ton, well down on last year’s $105/t average.
Further coal export improvements partly hinge on Transnet backing up green shoots of an operational and financial turnaround. However, the company trails its own total freight rail targets of 180Mt for 2025/26, according to a News24 report this week. Efforts to introduce private operating companies on its network is expected to add 20Mt to its total export volumes for 2026/27, it added.
Debt funder FutureGrowth warned in a note at the end of 2025 that whilst private investors were keen to invest in infrastructure, “capital will only flow when projects are bankable, transparent, and governed by rules that inspire confidence”, said News24.
